Quilly House, 43 Lower Quilly Road, Dromore, Banbridge, Co Down, BT25 1NL

Quilly House is a symmetrical two-storey Georgian house with basement, built circa 1800, located on the Lower Quilly Road to the south, approximately one mile east of Dromore in County Down. The building is Grade B1 listed.

The house is L-shaped in plan with a tetrastyle portico. The hipped roof is covered in natural slates with leaded hips and ridge. Cast-iron rainwater goods are ogee-moulded. Chimneys are smooth rendered with moulded string-course and cornicing, finished with pots.

The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered with vermiculated long-and-short quoins. An ogee-moulded eaves course runs around the building.

Windows are predominantly tripartite timber sliding sash windows. Ground floor windows comprise 6/6 sashes flanked by 2/2 sashes with horizontal glazing bars. These windows have plain cills with brackets and shaped aprons. Moulded pilasters rise to consoles supporting moulded entablature. First floor windows are tripartite 3/6 sliding sashes with complementary side sashes, moulded surrounds with raised key-block, and raised aprons with foliated ornamentation. Basement windows are diminished-in-height sliding sashes.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. The front entrance comprises a timber four raised-and-fielded panel door with a segmental-arched fanlight over bearing radial glazing bars (view obscured). The door is flanked by paired engaged Doric columns with ribbed bases. The entrance is accessed from a raised platform with winder bifurcated steps either side of a masonry balustrade with moulded panel below. A Doric portico surmounts this arrangement, supporting an elliptical arcade topped by a masonry balustrade parapet. Ground floor windows occupy the left and right bays with three first floor windows directly above.

The left elevation is detailed as the front with openings to each floor. French doors with sidelights are accessed via masonry steps flanked by masonry balustrades. Two diminished-in-height sliding sash windows light the basement.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged and lacks ornamentation. An L-shaped wing abuts the left side, comprising two storeys over basement. A further two-storey gabled abutment with lateral ridge sits at the re-entrant angle, also with basement. Various windows overlook the rear yard, including a 3/6 round-headed landing light with radial glazing bars and coloured glazing. Sheeted basement doors open to internal elevations. The external elevation of the rear wing matches the front detail with two ground and first floor windows above a battered basement level containing infilled openings. A blank north elevation contains a round-headed recess at ground floor level.

The south elevation is abutted by a single-storey hipped extension dating to circa 1990, which is of no historic interest.

The right elevation is symmetrically arranged with a centrally positioned ground and first floor window matching those on the principal elevation, though the first floor window lacks vertical glazing bars. Basement openings are infilled.

The setting is rural. Access from the road is via rendered panelled piers with projected plinth and moulded cornicing surmounted by ornamental falcons perched on half-spheres, flanked by wrought-iron estate gates. Smaller piers without falcons support wrought-iron pedestrian gates. Second piers on approach, without ornamentation or gates, define the immediate setting boundary. Trees screen the house, which sits within well-maintained grounds with a large lawn to the east.

South of the main house stands an earlier seventeenth century dwelling now used as a cattle barn. It features snecked rubble walling with brick surrounds to the original openings (now predominantly infilled). The interior is of no note. The roof is new, following a fire circa 1960.

Adjacent to this earlier house are the remains of an associated walled garden with rubble masonry outer face and hand-made brick internal face. Square-headed pedestrian accesses provide access. An elliptical-arched opening to the west is infilled. The grounds are overgrown, with some remains of a greenhouse base visible to the west and north walls.

Further modern agricultural units and portacabins stand to the rear, accessed by interlinking concrete yards.